There’s a reason there are countless songs about loneliness. Feeling lonely is often part of being human, so many of us can relate to it. But a particular song or experience that resonates with one lonely person may mean nothing to another person who feels isolated and misunderstood.
Humans are social creatures. People who feel left out often experience loneliness. To find out what’s going on in the brains of lonely people, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles performed non-invasive brain scans and found something surprising. Scans show that everyone who isn’t alone processes the world around them in a similar way. Lonely people not only interpret things differently than their non-lonely peers, they may even see each other differently.
“Our results suggest that lonely people process the world differently, which may contribute to the decline in perceived senses that often accompanies loneliness.” The research team, led by psychologist Elisa Bech, said in a paper. study Recently published in the journal Psychology.
feel misunderstood
Previous studies have suggested Baek’s findings. Areas of the brain are activated when we feel understood by others. ventral striatum, Chubu Island, wedge frontand temporoparietal junction— According to one study, it is related to social connection and reward processing. 2014 survey. The same study found that people who felt misunderstood showed more activity in areas of their brains associated with negative emotions, such as: Maejima and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.
For example, neurons that release the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine are located in the ventral striatum. This is just one way that feeling connected can have a positive effect. The preinsular cortex, on the other hand, is deeply involved in social interactions and emotions, including loneliness.
Research like this made Baek want to know if there was something about the idea known as the “Anna Karenina principle.”Leo Tolstoy’s iconic novel Anna Karenina The work says, “All happy families are similar. All happy families are similar. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The team took functional MRI (fMRI) scans of the brains of 66 freshmen at UCLA while watching short video clips of scenes related to social interactions such as parties and (of course) music. Sentimental and can evoke emotions.
The students who participated in the study had already completed a questionnaire about how they felt about their social life. Keep in mind that even if you have a lot of friends and a busy schedule, you may end up feeling left out or misunderstood, which will affect the results of this study. People with scores above a certain level were classified as ‘lonely’, and those below that level were classified as ‘non-lonely’.
The researchers then analyzed the fMRI scans. This scan shows what is happening in the brain by measuring subtle changes in blood flow that occur during nerve activity. fMRI can also see which areas of the brain are active during certain activities. Baek’s team was looking for activities in areas related to sociability and the emotions associated with it.
Same emotions, different activities
Scan results were analyzed in pairs to search for correlations between subjects. In this way, the researchers were able to identify similarities and differences in the brain activity of the two people, the lonely and the non-lonely, and the lonely or not-lonely. .
In this context, Tolstoy turned out to be right. fMRI scans showed that people who were not alone responded very similarly to the videos they watched. Not only were the brain activities of the lonely people significantly different from those of the non-lonely people, they were even more different from each other. This means that each loner in this study perceives the world differently.
Having a different perspective from others makes lonely people less likely to feel understood, Baek suggests, and makes them even more lonely (though whether this is a cause, a consequence, or both) of loneliness. It’s not clear, she said). Nor was loneliness dependent on social activity, as not all solitary subjects were devoid of social life. Even among those in the study who reported having moderate social activity, such as having many friends or participating in social events, some showed neurological characteristics that differed from those who were not lonely.
“Lonely people process the world differently than their peers and each other,” Baek said in the same sentence. study. “Future studies could further test this possibility … examining which aspects of the interpretation of lonely individuals are particularly idiosyncratic.”
Anyone feeling lonely can now be convinced that someone who feels similarly isolated may be in a very different way.
psychological science, 2023. DOI: 10.1177/095679762211453
